Problem: Audio is a new wave of communicating organically in the network economy; however, it’s current engineering is extremely restricted to existing structures and does not allow for much randomness.
Solution: This business would build the Omegle of audio. For those who are not familiar, “Omegle is a free online chat website that allows users to socialize with others without the need to register. The service randomly pairs users in one-on-one chat sessions where they chat anonymously.” It uses video to run the service; however an audio-only service may also be appealing for a variety of reasons.
Recently, Omegle came back into popularity through memes on TikTok: it’s become a whole genre of prank videos for the new generation. Memes of Omegle piano playing garnered 8.1 million views in March 2020, Omegle guitar playing received 18 million views, and Charlie D’amelio posted a December 2020 Omegle Christmas video with 9+ million views.
Omegle was a big deal, and new media has made it an even bigger deal. This business would capitalize by focusing on audio-first friendship creation (it would also build on the new wave hype that “Clubhouse believes it can reinvent radio with the right interactivity and build a unique social platform.”)
One use-case for this new technology is astronauts. “NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock was just a few weeks into his six-month mission at the space station when feelings of isolation began to set in,” describes the LA Times:
Astronauts aboard the space station often speak to students via ham radio, which can also be used in emergencies, but those are scheduled appearances. Some, like Wheelock, spend their limited free time making contact with amateur radio operators around the world.
“It allowed me to ... just reach out to humanity down there,” said Wheelock, who interacted with many operators, known as “hams,” during that stay at the space station in 2010. “It became my emotional, and a really visceral, connection to the planet.”
The first amateur radio transmission from space dates to 1983, when astronaut Owen Garriott took to the airwaves from the Space Shuttle Columbia. Garriott was a licensed ham who, back on Earth, had used his home equipment in Houston to chat with his father in Oklahoma.
More practically, this platform could be pitched as an audio-first dating app or a new version of Foursquare (or other social media apps) and allow you to talk to people who live near you. It would be like a new, random version of the walkie talkie. Perhaps it could even morph into a future of music startup where the purpose is to connect musicians to each other remotely for jam sessions or venturing into the world of 3D sound.
It’s worth noting that radio is not dead. As described in 2019 by Statista,
Radio is one of the most powerful mediums in the United States, with a weekly reach of around 90 percent among adults. There are over 15,500 radio stations in the U.S., all competing for a piece of this massive market. WTOP, a station operating out of Washington D.C. is the largest of its kind in the U.S., pulling in almost 68 million U.S. dollars in yearly revenue. Online radio is also playing an increasing role in the radio market, with an estimated 57 percent of the U.S. population listening to online radio on a monthly basis in 2018. Pandora is the biggest online radio company in the United States by a significant margin, boasting an average active sessions figure in the millions. American radio stations generated total revenue of over 14 billion U.S. dollars in 2018, of which 920 million dollars was generated through online radio streaming. In addition to the massive national stations and broadcasts, local public radio stations also appear to be thriving. Public radio station revenue has increased from around 624 million U.S. dollars in 2009 to over 900 million in 2019. ‘Country’ is by far the most popular format, with 2,179 individual stations broadcasting music from this genre. As of 2018, Americans averaged 106 minutes of radio listening time per day, with much of this time being spent while commuting.
While services like Spotify and Pandora has rocked radio distribution, this startup would hope to rock radio content itself by allowing consumers to co-create and engage in “stations” by randomly being paired with individuals either 1:1 or in groups.
Monetization: Premium features at a subscription fee.
Contributed by: Michael Bervell (Billion Dollar Startup Ideas)